Top 6 Best Insect Repellents

They’re the uninvited guests you can always count on to ruin your backyard barbecue, summer vacation, or campout: Bugs that bite and sting — making any time spent in the great outdoors …well, a little less great.

Insect repellents are your best defense against those pesky pests, but a new analysis by Consumer Reports finds some bug sprays don’t offer much protection and may even contain potentially harmful ingredients.

The good news: The more effective insect repellents rated by Consumer Reports were also among the safer choices. In fact, the two top-rated products — Sawyers Fisherman’s Formula and Repel Lemon Eucalyptus — outperformed products that contained up to 25 percent DEET, a chemical that can cause serious side effects.

The active ingredient in Sawyer Fisherman’s Formula is 20 percent picaridin, and for Repel Lemon Eucalyptus it’s 30 percent oil of lemon eucalyptus. Both products were able to keep mosquitoes and deer ticks away for at least seven hours, the analysis showed.

“They are not side-effect-free, but those problems are less severe than DEET,” said Ellen Kunes, Consumer Reports’ heath and food content development team leader. “Still, all repellents should be used sparingly and only for the time you need them — especially on children and older people.”

Biting and stinging insects are more than just a nuisance; some carry serious infections and diseases.

Mosquitoes spread a range of blood-borne disease, including encephalitis, Chikungunya, and West Nile virus, which be serious or deadly for older people and those with compromised immune systems.
Tick bites can lead to Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, spread by the black-legged deer tick — about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Ticks can also cause other diseases, such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Stings and bites from bees, hornets, spiders, and other insects can cause life-threatening allergic reactions in some people or become infected.

To identify the safest and most effective spray-on repellents, Consumer Reports hired an outside laboratory to test 15 pump sprays and aerosols repellents. The products contained DEET, picaridin, oil of lemon eucalyptus, a chemical called IR3535, and products made with natural plant oils.

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